Tickets for Euro 2012 went on sale today but England and Republic of Ireland fans face a two-month wait before they will know if they have been successful.

The tickets went on sale on uefa.com but are not a first-come, first-served basis and the application window will remain open until the end of February.

Tickets for both England and the Republic are restricted to their official fans groups, with special log-ins being supplied by their football associations.

In the event of the matches, taking place in Poland and Ukraine this summer, being over-subscribed then ballots will be held with the most loyal fans getting preference.

England fans will also struggle to buy tickets allocated for France and Ukraine fans, as they are only available to nationals or residents of those countries. The same applies to Irish fans attempting to buy tickets allocated to Spain, Italy and Croatia.

England fans may try to buy tickets allocated to Sweden however, as according to the Swedish fans portal on uefa.com no such restrictions apply.

UEFA said 32% of the overall stadia capacity have been reserved for the supporters of the 16 finalists.

A UEFA statement said: "Each team will receive 16% of the overall net stadium capacity, or a minimum of 6,000 tickets, for each of their group-stage match. For quarter-finals and semi-finals, the number of tickets reserved is 5,000 per participating team, and for the final it is 9,000 per participating team."

The 16% translates as 8,300 tickets for the England games in Donetsk against France on June 11 and Ukraine on June 19, and 11,000 tickets for the Sweden game in Kiev on June 15.